Watercolor Flowers

Spent part of my day yesterday painting......good times!

Great Inspiration!

Today I am sort of all over the place with ideas of things to do, and am working on several things I hope to share in the next day or so.  In the mean time, if you haven't had a chance, check out Teesha Moore's blog today with videos on a really cool journal/sewing/quilting idea.  I made a tiny purse with this method years ago and if I can find a photo of it, I will share.  I see more quilting in my future.   Good thing I have all day most days  to play because I am in idea overload!
Here is some of the beauty in found in my backyard today.......

More Watercolor

A couple of days ago I mentioned the workbook I found on watercolors.  Stayed up way too late last night reading several chapters.  I am so pleased that I found this jewel!   Anyway, I went back to this drawing I did several days ago and painted it with watercolors, also adding a few flowers that are not drawn.  What fun and how relaxing.  After I do a few chores today, I am going to try painting a few more flowers.

I am also taking several portrait classes (again) this time from Suzi Blu.  I love her teaching style as well as her painting style.  Martha Lever mentioned taking one of her classes on her blog, so I decided to check it out.  What really drew me to the class was the subject matter.  We are painting Henry the eight and his wives.  Don't know about you but I LOVE The Tudors on Showtime, and I love that era.  Hope to have some decent painting to show soon.   Well, chores are calling....

Leaping into Watercolor!

Martha Lever (MarthaLever.blogspot.com) has a wonderful blog which I visit daily for inspiration.  Martha and I have taken a lot of online classes together, though we have never met in person.   I have taken two calligraphy classes from her and have always loved her combination of calligraphy and watercolor.  Today, I was happily surprised to see that she had done a watercolor tutorial.  She is such a great teacher and makes everything seem so easy.   I was so inspired that while out running errands today, I stopped at Borders to check out their water color books.  I found a cool book/workbook/course.  Here is the wonderful book, and my first attempt at Martha's 5 minute flowers.

Watercolor and Pan Pastels

Okay first off,  I am NOT a watercolorist, have only tried it a few times.  So I decided to draw a few flowers and use my watercolor pencils (which I rarely use) to color in the drawing.  I decided to use my pan pastels (rarely use) for the background.  So in the end, although my drawing is very childish, I at least used some of my art supplies that are gathering dust, and had fun to boot!  Oh, and the butterfly is my new Martha Stewart punch.  All in all it was a good day. 8-)
Would love to take a water color class online.  Think next time I will eliminate the drawing and go straight to the watercolor pencils or pans and see how that works out.

Happy Easter

I searched my photos for a shot of a lily or other spring flower to share with you on this Blessed day, but couldn't locate one.  So I decided to share these two backgrounds from my online class with Wyanne instead.... and a quilt I finally finished binding....sort of spring like, huh?

Todays work

Have you ever had the sort of day that you can't wait to get into the studio, only to be at a loss of what to create once you arrive?  That was the way my day began.  The past several days have been rather dreary weather wise, which has always affected my moods.  ( I could never live in the Pacific NW).  Anyway, I awoke this morning to sunshine and the urge to go down to the studio. My studio is in our basement, and although it has windows, and a lot of overhead lighting, it can still feel dark to me if the weather is dreary.

I watched a bit of TV as I puttered around trying to decide what to create.  I ran across an article by Misty Mawn in an old Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, where she is sharing her background techniques among other things.  So that is how I spent my morning, making backgrounds.  It was a lot of fun and now that they are dry, I am looking at them to see what they are showing me.  In the blue one, I see a womans body, and in the mauve one I see two large birds.  Not sure what the others are saying, but I guess I know what I will be drawing tomorrow.....weather permitting! lol

Things I'm working on....

What I am sharing today is a painting I did that taught me to never give up.  I started the painting as 12 x9 as opposed to 9 x 12.  I painted several trees and blotted on paint to add the spring buddings.   It very fast turned into a hot mess. lol.  Instead of throwing the canvas out, as I would have in the past, I decided to try to make lemonade out of lemons.  I added with stamped pattern pieces, paper napkins, paint, and painted on a face.  It is not my favorite painting, but it taught me to keep at it and see what can happen.

What I found......

As spring is arriving, so is my need to clean out my studio.  I am a firm believer in getting rid of anything I have not used in a year or so.  When it comes to art, I feel some what the same.  I say some what because I have purchased things and not used them for years, only to find a use for them much later.  I am thinking about having a spring cleaning sale on Ebay in a week.  I considered my Etsy site, but I haven't had much luck there in the past year.
Okay, so while cleaning and re-arranging my studio, I found two 5x5 stampbord boxes.  Since I have fallen in love with Zentangles, I decided to use my doodles on the lid.  Check it out...

Like perhaps many of you, I have a few unfinished art pieces.  I came across this painting and am in the process of finishing it.  I am struggling with the angelic wings, and need to find a way to make them pop.  I also plan to add a saying or word using my newly learned calligraphy.  The painting is done on a wood panel.

Calligraphy and Zentangles

As mentioned in my previous post, I am taking an on-line calligraphy class; and I also purchased a Zentangles kit on ETSY.  Here are photos of my first three Zentangle tiles, and calligraphy lettering.  I enjoy both of these art forms... they are really relaxing.  As I get better with the calligraphy, I think it will be fun to use in my paintings.

I'm still here...

Oddly enough, I have not felt much like blogging lately.  Not in a bad mood or anything, just not much to say or share art wise.
I have been taking a few new on-line classes, Brush calligraphy, Itallic Calligraphy, Shades of Gray, and probably another that I can't think of right now.  All great classes and instructors.
I  am looking into classes being offered by the Art League here in the DC area.  My thought is that I might benefit from having a teacher in the room who will critique and provide guidance.  I have the need to learn my own process and not re-create someone else's style.   This is my second year of painting with acrylics and I am still a bit in awe of them.  My drawing has improved, but I still don't know where I want to go with my painting.
My husband and I are going to visit the facility this weekend to get a feel for the location and to view the artists studios.  I really hope I will be inspired.....
I have also started Zentagles.  This is really a fun and relaxing art form.  I'll post pictures in s day or so.

Snow Again!

We have yet another blizzard today with 40 mph winds.  Not the weather we are accustomed to in the DC area.  Too nasty outside to take a picture to show you, but imagine 6-10 inches on top of 26 inches already on the ground.  Oh well back to working on taxes...

Snow bound art

As we await yet another snow storm, I decided to share the art I have done in the past few days.... Both pieces have napkins incorporated in them.

Blizzard in the DC area

I really love snow, and since I don't have any place to go for the next few days,  I love it!  This may be more snow than I have seen in this area since 1995, or some say ever.  Great day to hunker down and browse blogs, work on painting, and do what I really should be doing...work on a baby quilt for a customer that must be ready by 2/16.  The quilt is made, I just need to do the quilting and binding ( the not so fun, hard on the back part).  But in this economy, I am thankful to have a customer, so I will work through the pain to make the quilt cute for her new bambino. 8-)

Great Find

I am taking a few online classes this month (what's new), but I think this is it for me for a while unless something really awesome comes along.   A couple of the classes have to do with drawing and painting faces, but I am also taking an awesome class in color theory, offered by Julie Pritchard andChris Cozen.

Great class and exercises to help one understand color and the color wheel.  They focus mainly on Golden products since Chris works for Golden.  They peaked my interest so much that I checked out books on the subject and found these three.

These three books are awesome.  As a woman of color I often struggle with skin tones, and have often resorted to craft paint colors in my paintings as opposed to trying to mix the colors.  I now have the confidence to try mixing my own skin tones to celebrate the many skin tones of people of color.